Second Chance
by ponyexpress
Summary: Set after Edward first encounters Bella and flees for Denali.  What happens when Edward stops to clear his mind in a quiet meadow in Canada, but suddenly finds himself in 1918 Chicago?    One-shot on how Edward came to the decision to befriend Bella.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:**

**I've been writing a while but this will be my first "published" fanfic… reviews and constructive criticism welcome, but please be kind! =)**

**All Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer of course. Story is mine except for the excerpts from Twilight told in Edward's POV.**

**Summary:**

**Set after Edward first encounters Bella and flees for Denali. What happens when Edward stops to clear his mind in a quiet meadow in Canada, but finds himself in 1918 Chicago? What does he discover? One-shot on my idea how Edward came to the decision to befriend Bella Swan.**

_**Second Chance**_

My eyes squeezed tightly shut as I gripped the steering wheel of Carlisle's black Mercedes, my mind in turmoil.

Bella Swan. A human wrecking ball intent on destroying _me_, without any knowledge of what she was doing at all.

It was astonishing how one small, insignificant girl could destroy the foundation of self-control I had built over a hundred years. She'd simply walked into the classroom and her scent had assailed itself upon me, absolutely mouthwatering. It'd taken every last shred of my control not to kill her, right there, in Mr. Banner's biology lab.

I'd left the highschool as soon as I could, stopping at the hospital to trade cars with Carlisle. I didn't want to have to go home to Esme, to try to explain to her why I was running. It would hurt her too much.

I rested my head against the steering wheel of the stopped car and sighed. If only I could have a second chance, to not be a monster. To love someone, naturally, humanly. To live among humans without constantly suppressing the urge to kill them.

I sighed deeply again, going back over my dim, human memories, faded by time. My mother and father, our home in Chicago, our neighborhood, our old friends…my heart ached for those human times.

I reminisced like that for an immeasurable amount of time before I decided to get out of the Mercedes and hunt nearby in the vast wilderness. Maybe I could find a mountain lion or two.

I carefully parked the car alongside the road, behind some large bushes to conceal it, and loped off into the woods, letting the scents of the woods wash over me. I picked up the scent of a big cat, and set off in that direction.

Several hours later, I was satisfied, and lay on my back, staring up at the darkening sky and looking at the stars beginning to peek through. My mind drifted back to Forks, to Bella Swan. What could I do? Could I learn to live with her, to exist? I doubted that I could ever ignore a scent like _that. _I sighed. Maybe I could just continue on to Alaska, live there until Bella left Forks. It was a reasonable plan.

I sighed again and closed my eyes, letting my mind drift back to my human memories, and the pleasant times in the Chicago of my youth.

(break)

When I "awoke", the sun was high above my head, beating down upon me mercilessly. I sat up, slightly lightheaded. Huh. Weird. Brushing it off as nothing, I stood, and reluctantly turned to leave. That was when I was struck by the strangest sensation, one I hadn't felt in nearly a hundred years.

I was _starving_!

Anxiety coursed through my veins and my heart pounded faster. I froze as that last thought registered. My heart was pounding.

I held up my hand in front of my face, in the full, blazing sunlight. It was a deep tan instead of ivory, and it didn't sparkle in the sunlight. I wasn't a vampire. Somehow, someway, _I was human!_

I couldn't believe my own eyes. I pinched my arm to make sure I was real, that I wasn't dreaming. I closed my eyes, opened them again, and I was still right where I was, in the middle of a quiet park. I could hear the far-off drone of vehicles, and the gentle murmur of voices somewhere nearby.

I looked down at my clothing and saw I was wearing brown trousers and a white cotton shirt, with-heaven help me- _suspenders._

My gaze jerked up when I spotted a couple walking hand-in-hand along a small path nearby. The woman wore a floor-length dress in a brown color, with black, button-up boots. Her suitor wore a similar outfit to myself, only with a jacket over his broad shoulders.

My head whipped around as I took in the scenery around me, and breathed in the hot, summer air. I dared not entertain the hope that was taking place in my mind.

I rushed out of the park, to the nearby street and was shocked to see I was only a block away from my home. _I was home. _

Somehow, someway, I was _home._ In 1918 _Chicago._

My heart started pounding in my chest as I rushed home as fast as I could, dodging people on the sidewalk.

And then, suddenly, I was standing in front of a two-story, white-sided home. My home. I wanted to cry right there in the middle of the walk. I was human and I was home. I didn't care how it had happened, why it had happened. Someone had given me my second chance.

I was so filled with joy that I didn't even notice the lithe figure that danced from the front porch swing, a smile on her beautiful face.

"Edward!" she sang, plowing into to me and wrapping her arms around me_. _

I was so startled that I could only give her an awkward hug in return before her scent struck me. But it couldn't be. _She_ was still in 2008, in Washington, not here, in Chicago! But the scent was unmistakably _her._ Unmistakably _Isabella Swan._

"Bella?" I asked timidly.

She laughed against my chest, placing a soft kiss on my neck that burned. "Of course it's me, Edward." She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. "Your mother said you were on a walk so I decided to wait for you."

I smiled at her gently. "Well that was kind of you, Bella."

She laughed again, a soft, pleasant sound. "Of course, my Edward. Anything for my husband-to-be."

I attempted to mask my shock with a smile. _Husband-to-be? Fiancé?_

She took my hand and tugged on it, heading toward the house. I followed, feeling numb. Why didn't I remember I had a fiancé? How could I have possibly forgotten something like _that?_

As we entered the house, I saw my mother standing in the kitchen doorway in a long, white cotton dress. She smiled at me, wiping her hands on the apron tied about her waist.

"Hello, my dear. Did you have a pleasant walk?"

I smiled, taking in her image with wonder. "Yes, thank you mother."

I felt Bella squeeze my hand and press herself against my side, and I looked down into her chocolate brown eyes to see her smiling at me.

"I'm going to freshen up for a moment. Excuse me please."

I hurried up the stairs, eager to see my room. I pushed the door open and found it was the same as I remembered.

I turned to the dresser with the mirror over top of it and looked at my reflection. Bright, emerald green eyes stared back at me from a vaguely familiar face, topped with a shock of copper colored hair. It was me all right, but I still couldn't understand why _I _was back in Chicago, and human, of all things.

I looked down at the photograph that sat in a gilded frame on the dresser. It was of Bella and myself, standing close with wide smiles. The caption at the bottom read _Edward Masen and Isabella Swan, Engagement Day, 1918._

I held the image in my hands, just looking at the two of us. Why couldn't I remember my own engagement? I set down the frame and sighed, looking out the window at the quiet neighborhood below.

And then suddenly, a vision appeared before my eyes, crystal clear and shocking in its intensity. In an instant, I recognized my meadow.

_We sat in the middle of the meadow, surrounded by the wildflowers. Bella sat across from me, her mahogany hair a curtain around her perfect, heart shaped face._

_I took her small hands in both of mine, loosing myself in their chocolate depths._

"_I don't know how to be close to you," I admitted to her. "I don't know if I can."_

_She leaned forward very slowly, her dark eyes cautioning me of her intentions. She placed her warm cheek against my chest and sighed._

"_This is enough," she murmured, closing her eyes._

_I put my arms around her and gently pressed my face to her hair, smelling the unique combination of freesia, roses, and the strawberry shampoo she used. The slow burn in the back of my throat was all but ignored as I held her in my arms. _

"_You're better at this than you give yourself credit for," she noted._

_A small smile worked its way across my face. "I have human instincts-they may be buried deep, but they're there."_

And then, suddenly, with a gasp, I was back in Chicago, back to being human, totally shocked at what I'd just witnessed. It had really been _me_, holding that fragile human destined to wreck me! I'd been holding her, breathing in her scent!

"Edward?"

It was Bella, peeking her head through my doorway and looking at me with concerned eyes. "Edward? Are you doing okay my love?"

I smiled. "Yes, of course, Bella."

She smiled back and came to tuck herself into my side, and I pressed my face into her soft, brown hair, inhaling the scent of freesias that was unique to my Bella.

_My Bella._ Had I been in Washington, in that moment, the words would have sounded foreign and strange. I could have never imagined being this close to Bella as a vampire, but as a human, I loved being in her presence.

I held her silently for a few more moments before my eyes fell on the small calendar at my bedside table. August 4th, 1918.

Suddenly, it all came rushing back to me, why I became a vampire in the first place. The Spanish Influenza. I had _died _in the summer of 1918. Cold terror gripped me as I clenched my teeth, pulling Bella tighter to me. We had to leave Chicago-all of us. Now.

"Edward, love, what's wrong?" She struggled to free herself from my tight grip, and I let her go.

"Bella, we have to leave Chicago, now."

She stared at me. "Leave? Now? But Edward, our wedding is in September!"

"NO!" I shouted, raw with fear. No, no, no! We couldn't stay that long!

"Edward?" Bella was panicking. "What's wrong? Please, Edward!"

"Bella, we can't wait any longer. We have to leave Chicago. All of us- you, mother, father, me… we have to leave. Just until spring. Then we'll come back, I promise."

"But why?"

I put a hand on each of her shoulders, staring into her dark brown eyes. "Bella, please trust me. We must leave, our lives depend on it."

And then, suddenly, another scene from Forks played out in front of my eyes.

_I drove her broken-down Chevy back from our meadow, my hand intertwined with Bella's. She'd asked me about me age, the question I'd really feared, after she'd discovered what I was. I expected her to run away screaming at any moment. _

_I couldn't meet her eyes, not yet. I looked at the bright orb of the sun, setting over the ocean. I was vaguely aware of the sparking of my ivory skin from the sunlight. _

"_I was born in Chicago in 1901." I glanced over at her before I continued. "Carlisle found me in a hospital, in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, and dying of the Spanish Influenza."_

_I heard her low gasp as I looked into her eyes again._

"_I don't remember it well-it was a long time ago and human memories fade." I remembered back to that time of hazy pain, of heat. And then the all-consuming fire, Carlisle's distraught face as he leaned over me…_

"_I do remember how it felt, when Carlisle saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you could forget."_

And then I was back in Chicago again, Bella watching me with dark eyes. "Bella, I can't argue any more. We must leave. Our lives depend on it."

She stared at me for a moment before I saw her eyes soften. "Alright, Edward. We'll go."

(break)

My parents refused to leave, no matter how much I pleaded and begged. They simply wouldn't believe me.

Bella and I were planning to leave that following morning. We were going to drive out west, find someplace where no one would be. But as I arose that morning, I felt… off. It was the only way I could describe it. I shrugged it off as nothing and went to clean up before heading down for breakfast.

It was as I loaded the bags into my car that it hit me. I dropped what I had been carrying and sank to my knees on the cold sidewalk. I heard Bella scream my name, over and over. And then, things went so fast I didn't bother to keep track.

When my head finally stopped spinning, I opened my eyes, and it was then that the unique odor hit my nose, and I knew exactly where I was.

The hospital.

A kind-faced, blonde-haired man leaned over me, smiling gently. "How do you feel, son?"

I could only stare as tears began to well in my eyes. Carlisle. Carlisle was here.

"Edward? Can you hear me?" His voice was higher in pitch, becoming strained.

"Yes," I whispered.

Carlisle smiled gently. "Edward, I'm going to do whatever I can for your parents and yourself. I'll do whatever it takes."

_Your parents. _I moved my head, and my heart clenched when I saw my mother and father, lying there across from me. I'd been too late.

"Edward?"

"Bella?" I turned my head again and saw Bella had knelt by my bedside, looking at me with wide brown eyes.

She smiled gently, and stroked my hair. "I'm here, love."

"I love you Bella," I whispered, reaching for her hand. She grasped my hand, squeezing it gently.

"Your time here is done, my love," she murmured into my ear. "You have found your strength."

Her words sunk into my conciseness, and I finally understood why I had been sent back to Chicago. It was to find my inner strength, to realize that I could live with Bella.

"Edward, my love, you can live with me, in the future, in Forks. It will take willpower, but you can do it, my Edward." She kissed my lips gently. "Sleep, my only love."

(break)

I awoke from my daydreams with a start, gasping for breath. What in the _hell_ had just happened?

I looked around and saw I was in the meadow I had lain in after hunting. The sun shone brilliantly overhead, causing my stone-cold skin to sparkle luminously. So much for being human.

I leaped to my feet as the buzz of the phone in my pocket startled me. I removed the device and read Alice's text.

_Come home Edward. We're waiting._

I typed a quick reply.

_On my way._

With a chuckle, I raced for Carlisle's Mercedes and spun it around, heading back home, to Forks.

(break)

I walked at a quick human to Mr. Banner's Biology, feeling somewhat eager to try again to be friends with Bella Swan. My experience in Chicago had left me with hope, that no matter how she affected me, that I would be strong enough to resist the temptation of her blood.

I entered the classroom and was immediately struck by the scent of freesias, roses, and strawberries. _You can do this, you can do this,_ the voice in my mind chanted. I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the burn in my throat, and sat down at the desk beside her. Bella didn't even look up from her notebook, her chestnut hair forming a curtain around her face.

"Hello," I said quietly.

She looked up from her doodling; seemingly shocked I would speak to her. Which, truthfully, wasn't that far off when I had last been this close to her.

"My name is Edward Cullen," I continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

And so was the beginning of my life with Isabella Swan.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, gang; I have a challenge for y'all. Who has good story ideas for a new fanfic for Twilight? I'm at a dead end for ideas. If y'all have any ideas you think would make a good story, message me and I'll pick one to write.

Looking forward to seeing all these ideas!

And also, I have been seeing a lot of traffic for _Second Chance_ but only one review! Do you guys like the story and the writing or what? Reviews inspire me to write more stories =)


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